Old-Fashioned Black Walnut Pound Cake

Here’s a recipe that any old-time Southern cook has to have in her collection. This is a black walnut pound cake recipe like our grandmothers used to make, and is at least 100 years old. You can serve this cake with our without an icing, but it’s amazing by itself. Nothing beats a nice, warm slice of old fashioned black walnut cake on a chilly autumn day. Enjoy!

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One of eleven siblings, she was the daughter of a Baptist preacher, and was well remembered for her kind spirit and regard for others. Her genuine warmth and grace is sorely missed.

57 Responses to Old-Fashioned Black Walnut Pound Cake

Pinned this to my Autumn recipes board, can’t wait to try it. We have black walnuts and I try to keep black walnut flavoring to go in an old fashioned pumpkin bread that I make. I love the smell of black walnuts, and their rich flavor! Thanks for the recipe

I would love to follow you. How can I do this? I am from the deep south and miss a lot of the more southern recipes. I do try my best to eat healthy, so o some of the recipes, I would be using other ingredients,like coconut oil or olive oil verses other oil.

Is there a basic icing for this walnut pound cake? I have a sweet tooth (sigh) and just love that extra sweetness even if I don’t need it! I know most cakes just use some powdered sugar and some type of liquid to make icing. But, what goes with Walnut cake? I am 67 and never been one of those good old Southern cooks, but I try! Love the stewed potatoes that was another recipe. All stars! From Sweet Lips community in Chester Co., TN. West Tenn.

Judy a cream cheese or a plain vanilla butter icing goes good with the black walnut cake. I make black walnut layer cake. And I use either one on it and it’s always a hit, or at least I never have leftovers. If it’s not all eaten people want to take a slice or two home.

Since this an old recipe and Crisco has changed it’s product dramatically do you still use the new Crisco with the same results? I’ve found my favorite molasses cookie recipe that used Crisco was awful when the Crisco formula was changed.

We’ve had good results with just using more butter. That might make a good substitute for the Crisco. I’ve made breakfast gravy with nothing more than butter for fat, so I would think the same logic would work here. Although, if you can find locally-sourced organic lard, that would work, as well.

Kevin… I do render my own leaf lard. So you think that would work well? I hate using all those ingredients only to having a recipe fail. Also did I read that the recipe should be baking soda, not powder… or a combo of both? What in this recipe would be the acid that the soda is needed to neutralize?

The recipe calls for baking powder, so there should be no problems with acidity. As for the leaf lard, I have no idea. We’ve never used it. But if you’ve had good results with it in other recipes, I don’t imagine there’s any reason to expect it to be different here. There’s always a chance substitutions will have unexpected results, but there’s really only one way to know for sure. 🙂

I first made this cake back in March 2015. The only change I made was, I used a pound of butter and no Crisco as I did not have any. This cake turned out so great. It was also delicious. I only got one tiny piece. The cake was gone in about 4 hours. I have made it 7 times since and it is still great. I have nicked named it the disappearing cake.

I just compared this recipe to the one I got from an older lady in our family (distant cousin). It is right on with yours except hers has Butter Extract instead of Black Walnut. So other than that difference, I can say that this cake is AMAZING!!!!! I love love love the old recipes of days gone by that are tried and true! Getting harder to find them. I can’t wait to look around this site at your other recipes and see what else I can find. Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks for sharing this recipe. It brought back lots of memories; my daddy would crack out black walnuts and sell to pay his property taxes. My mama would bake two walnut cakes, one with whole kernels and one with finely chopped kernels so she could eat some of it (she had one side of her jawbone removed due to cancer). I try to keep black walnuts on hand and use them for a black walnut, fresh apple cake. Happy New Year!

Darlene – I have two black walnut trees on my property and have planted them for the squirrels. I know I can use the green husks to stain and darken wood, but didn’t realize that the nut meats could be used in foods. Is there a special way of drying or roasting them to be edible? I love them as a tree because they grow quickly (straight and tall), and the leaves seem to disintegrate into the ground in the fall – no raking required. You can reach me on Facebook – JackieNez

Oh God yes–coming from Iowa, these trees are a blessing! My parents moved to California so every year I would drive out in the country searching for black walnut trees, gather them, husk them, dry them well, crack them with a hammer all winter then in spring send my mother 5 gallon bags of shelled nuts. They were available in California, but VERY expensive. My Father would eat them by the handfuls. Once the green outer husks dry to black,this is where the original walnut stain comes from. Be careful with the juice/stain–you’ll never get it off your hands. Used to be embarrassing, but worth it. I live in Mexico now and I miss those wonderful nuts.

Yes you pick them off, tear off the outer husks and place them in the sun to dry.It will take awhile for them to dry, to test them, take your trusty hammer and whack em open. They are awesome to eat–we always used them the most at Christmas time because they arent falling off the tree until October in Iowa. They best way I learned to make sure they nuts were good inside was to put them in a bucket of water–if they float, the nuts are no good. Then husk the good ones and let dry a month or so. Our winters were always spent picking out the meats from the shells for the next years candies. They freeze easy too–just make sure they are good and dry.

Thank you for posting this recipe. I have been looking for a good pound cake recipe for a few years now. I contacted http://www.thekitchenwhisperer.net on facebook and ended up here! 🙂 I made this cake this week and it tastes just like the one my “Ma G” used to make. It was great!